Introducing a new, exclusive video series from Level 1, featuring cutting-room-floor footage from their new film, “After Dark.” “We had four camera crews traveling the world for six months shooting for our latest movie and we accumulated more content than we could ever squeeze into an hour-long feature film,” says Level 1′s director Josh Berman. “What you see in the flick, mag, and web coverage only tells a part of the story. The Extra Dark series that we’ll be dropping online features some awesome behind-the-scenes stories, a look at the filmmaking process, outtakes, extras, and a ton of grade-A action that hasn’t yet seen the light of day.”

Episode #5: Moscow, Russia – Wednesday November 30th

At this point you’ve seen the Russia seg in the movie, read the web updates, the feature article in Freeskier, etc, but we promise we’re NOT beating a dead horse- check out this webisode for some fresh content, fresh humor, and a fresh perspective on our Moscow jib trip.

Episode #4: Breck Park Session – Wednesday November 23rd
April showers bring May flowers, or, blizzards? The first week of May saw nearly 5-feet of new snow falling in Summit County, CO. We had to keep pushing our Breck shoot back in order to actually see some sunny skies and warm temps- key ingredients for any Spring park shoot. Running out of time before the next scheduled shoot we pulled the trigger and kicked off our shoot in a harrowing blizzard (at night, no less) before the clouds cleared and we were treated to some grade-A superpark-style features from the Breck park staff.
Check it all out in this webisode featuring cutting-room floor (crazy -the quality of tricks and treats that don’t make the feature flick!) shots of Tom Wallisch, Parker White, Chris Logan, Adam Delorme, Mike Hornbeck, Alex Bellemare, Pat Goodnough, and Banks Gilberti.

Episode #3: Telluride Helitrax – Wednesday November 23rd
Parker White, Duncan Adams, and Logan Imlach bag some ‘Couli’s in some of Colorado’s most epic terrain with Telluride Helitrax. Pow, cliffs, epic spires, and helicopters- booyah!

Episode #2: Sun Valley – Monday November 14th
In this episode, check out some of what went into our annual park shoot in Sun Valley, ID where Parker White, Chris Logan, Alex Bellemare, Tom Wallisch, and Niklas Eriksson get after some jib and jump features including the massive Quad Wall setup, a canon rail over 30ft of rocks, and a HUGE 120ft gap jump.

Episode #1: Quebec – Wednesday November 9th
In what’s become an annual Level 1 trip to QC, its an unending quest for everyone to step up their game and do it bigger and better then the previous year- no small task. Watch JF Houle talk about what was involved in making it happen in 2011!

Level 1 is proud to release the latest incarnation of our annual Fall collabs with Jiberish! This year’s gear features two new pieces in 3-colorways each, available exclusively in the Level 1 online store!

The “Sideways Crew,” with clean lines, detailing, and leather patch logo applique is in stock and ready to ship! No wait on this one! This piece features Jiberish’s tried and true cut and sew fit and construction, with 100% organic cotton body, and non-pilling waist and cuff ribbing. Available in three slick colorways including Black/Gray, Bright Blue/Navy, and Light Gray/Mint. Order up!

The “Track Jacket” is a nod to one of our first Jiberish pieces ever, with a much-improved design, materials, cut, and detailing! This lightweight windbreaker-style piece is dripping with style, and features three colorways all with a white satin lining and striped-ribbing, zip front and pocket closures, and Level 1 and Jiberish embroidery/applique. This one is currently up for pre-order, but should be in stock and shipping in early December. Place your pre-orders now before this one sells out, and stay tuned to the Level 1 site for shipping updates!

As seen in the October 2011 issue of FREESKIER.

Words and photos:
Chris O’Connell_LEVEL_1

THREE TOUGH LOOKING RUSSIAN POLICE WALK TOWARDS US TOTING PISTOL GRIP KALASHNIKOV RIFLES. It’s 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning in the suburbs of Moscow, in a country where few people (especially police) smile in public and corruption is rampant. All I can think about is that things can go real bad, real quick. I look around at my crew—skiers Tom Wallisch, Ahmet Dadali and Mike Hornbeck, and Level 1 Productions filmer Kyle Decker— and see they all appear similarly gripped, out of place and less than comfortable in the minus 18-degree morning.

The mission is a quad-kink rail we had been kicked of the previous night by a crazed tenant of the nearby housing projects. Obviously, it wasn’t the first time someone had come to shred the solid quad-kink rail; an old lady was on us before we even had a chance to set up the tripods. She wouldn’t stop yelling at us in angry Russian, so we left while our guide Alex yelled his own Russian insults in return. Figuring she’d be asleep early Saturday morning, passed out from a $2 bottle of vodka, we hoped the odds of an uninterrupted session would be in our favor.

The problem with the morning mission was that Alex, our only sure means to communicate with any person in the city, couldn’t make it. So, brain surgeons that we are, we used our GPS to navigate back to the spot and found ourselves confronted by Kalashnikov-packing Russian police. We played some roulette, in Russia, and got caught. Not good.

Even in cosmopolitan Moscow, very few people speak English. In this case, that worked in our favor. The absolute breakdown in communication frustrated the cops so much that they put their hands up in a big X and took off. We had already bagged a few shots on the rail before they arrived, and since visiting a Russian police station without our translator wasn’t appealing, we decided not to push our luck and bailed quickly after them.

Check out the full writeup at Freeskier.com!

Text pulled from Steezygnar.com – check the full event coverage and more pix on their site!

“The movie itself was highly anticipated and delivered on all levels. The world tour of shots was incredible. Skiers like Ahmet Dadali (fresh off a best male performance from last year’s Eye Trip) continued to shred, and other personal favorite riders Tom Wallisch and Parker White nailed their segments as well. Sun Valley shots were sick… as was the Moscow and Japan footy. Itunes download is eminent.

‘After Dark’ delivered the gnar, and the hosts delivered the atmosphere. Snowriders and Greatest Bar put on a hell of a party. This was my first exposure to Snowriders, a unique ski/snowboard tour organizer based out of Boston. Looks like their trips are targeted at a more of a steezy rider.. offering more than a bus ride to the mountain and back. They promise a good time, and Friday night they delivered. Greatest Bar also came through big. I’ve watched a few Bruins games there, and they know how to get down. Jim Beam and Narangasett were present with specials and swag, so the night obviously got silly.”

Level 1 went to Russia this past season with Ahmet, Hornbeck, and Wallisch! Yeah, we know, old news… you’ve read the article in Freeskier Mag (it was a good one!), probably seen a few pix online, and probably even seen the Russia seg in After Dark. BUT, we just came across a few gems put together by our Russian Comrades that ya gotta check out- always interesting hearing the story from the inside, even with the rough translation!

Check out their coverage HERE and don’t mind the Googletranslate rough translation- it’s definitely better then trying to read in Russian! Something cool content and rad perspectives!

Also, got some fresh content to add to the mix- a feature length interview with Level 1 cinematographer extraordinaire Kyle Decker- definitely worth a read HERE.

And last but not least, we’ve dropped this one before, but its worth another callout- I’m a RUSSIAN!

Just got these in from our friends at Eastern Collective (formerly EC Headwear), just in time for winter. Check ‘em out exclusively in the Level 1 online store.

Just got some fresh new Level 1 Box Logo stickers- and we’ll be inserting them in all sticker packs sold on our site starting right about NOW! Yeah, we like our traditional die-cuts too, but sometimes you need a real sticker to do the job.

ORDER UP!

Barcelona goes off! Well, at least that’s what we’re told, and we’ve got photographic evidence that they throw down a pretty sweet Level 1 premiere every year. They just wrapped up a screening of After Dark to a sold out crowd, gave away a bunch of gear, and got some dudes to strip down on stage. All in good fun, right? Huge thanks to our friends at AlltheSki.com for putting together an awesome show and continuing to support Level 1!

Check the full writeup HERE! Google translate doing its best to help those of us out that don’t speak Spanish- it’s kinda rough at times, but you get the idea! If you speak Spanish, feel free to hit the original link HERE.

In celebration of Halloween we originally planned on dropping After Dark on iTunes on October 31st (get it? After Dark? Halloween?), but since everyone pushed us to bump the release up a few weeks, we’ve still got to come through with SOMETHING cool for one of our favorite holidays. So, we’re putting together the biggest baddest online pumpkin carving contest that we’ve ever heard of! Impress us. Inspire us. Scare us. Make us laugh. Make us cry. Carve the best damn pumpkin you can, take a picture of it, head on over to the Level 1 Facebook Page and post your photo on our wall.

We’ll be doling out some pretty rad prizes, including our grand prize, a BRAND NEW PAIR of 188cm Rossignol S7′s (retail value $699!), along with outerwear and accessories from Under Armour, eyewear from Spy, and movies from Level 1!

The rules? Well, we gotta have some rules in order to make sure you’re not grabbing a photo of some random pumpkin on your neighbor’s front steps, photoshopping something you found in a Google search, or otherwise not playing fairly… All entries should include SOME sort of evidence that the pumpkin actually exists and was done for this contest- whether its the subject of your carving, or just something in the entry that makes it clear to us that its legit, that’s your call- but if there’s any question of the legitimacy of your entry, well, you’re probably gonna get disqualified.

Other rules?
-Entries will be judged on overall impression.
-This contest is open to anyone, anywhere, worldwide (Level 1 reserves the right to sub prizes if shipping to a winner in some farout place isn’t feasible).
-All entries must include at least one pumpkin. Feel free to involve as many pumpkins as you deem appropriate.
-Entries can be photo OR video format (in case yours involves movement or animation- yeah, go nuts!)
-As noted above, something in your entry has to prove that its being done for THIS contest. Take this any way you want…
-Entrants agree to release Level 1 from all claims against injury, bodily harm, and other damages and liabilities related to involvement with this contest.

Prizes will be awarded for the top 3 entries as follows:
The GRAND PRIZE
-Pair of 188cm 2011 Rossignol S7 Skis
-After Dark DVD

Runner up #1
-Under Armour jacket (size/model TBD)
-After Dark DVD

Runner up #2
-Spy goggle and sunglass package (color/model TBD)
-After Dark DVD